Chianello: Library of the future – right in Beaverbrook

As far as 16-year-old Sirkar Thungathurti is concerned, the thoroughly re-built Beaverbrook Public Library is the perfect mix of old and new.

“It has the feel of the old library, but it’s more modern and can accommodate more people,” said the Kanata teen. “And it’s more high-tech than most locations.”

That’s an understatement.

There were plenty of oohs and aahs Wednesday morning when residents got their first glimpse of the 24,000-square-foot library, which was under construction for more than 18 months. (The $10 million price tag was largely covered by charges paid by developers.)

From the two-storey windows that flood the library with natural light, to the inviting work areas and meeting rooms — even the concrete sculptures of the Blanding turtles that lead the way to the front door — there’s no shortage of design features to impress residents.

“It’s really lovely,” said retiree Marilyn Arditti, who is a frequent library user and who years ago filled out a survey about what she hoped to see in the revamped one. “I think they really took into account what the public wanted, like natural light — because a dark library isn’t inviting — and a wonderful children’s area.”

But while the new Beaverbrook is an undeniably beautiful space, it’s the stuff you can’t see that makes it, in Coun. Jan Harder’s words, a “library of the future.”

The place offers free Wi-Fi, naturally, and every workspace has electrical outlets to plug in any sort of device. The comfy aqua-blue chairs lined up in front of the floor-to-ceiling windows (on both floors) are fitted with swivelling work tables. Most visitors had to be shown the steel plate in the floor that lifts to reveal yet more AC outlets.

Many of the shelves are movable to make room for community events like an art show or concert. There are meeting rooms that can accommodate anywhere from two to 90 people for a private business confab or group project. There’s a “Kanata room” that holds uber-local reference materials and art. There’s even the possibility of a rooftop terrace in the future — if the library can raise $100,000 for the remaining work.

Beaverbrook Public Library on Campeau Drive in Kanata, modelled on what the city is calling the “library of the future”.

Pat McGrath /
Ottawa Citizen

Donna Clark is the manager of both the Beaverbrook and Hazeldean branches in the west end. Infectiously outgoing and exuberant, Clark is nothing like the tut-tutting, shushing librarians of old, that worn cliché still nurtured, for some reason, by movies and pop culture.

“This is a vibrant community space,” says Clark. “Twenty or 25 years ago, you could meet your neighbours at the grocery store or the post office and chat. That doesn’t happen any more. My 20-year-old daughter said to me that there’s really no place for young people to go where they aren’t expected to spend money. The library is one of those places.”

Among the modern library’s key technologies is the radio frequency identification (or RFID) system that allows specialized machines to read coded stickers on library materials and sort them automatically. At Beaverbrook, a conveyor belt carries all materials dropped in the return slot to the sorting room. This automation allows a lone starter-level librarian these days to do the same amount of work of six under the old system.

More importantly, the technology frees up highly skilled librarians to help, in contemporary library-lingo, clients.

“We meet you in the stacks,” said Clark. “We want librarians out from behind desks.”

But for those who think that a librarian is just there to help you find a book, well, they haven’t visited a library in a long time.

At Beaverbrook, for example, there’s a business librarian who can help you apply for a business licence with the city, or understand how to register a trademark. A librarian can help you log onto a computer, find online research materials beyond Wikipedia, write a resume or download digital photos of your grandkids.

While I was writing this column, an older woman with halting English signed up for a workshop on how to create a website.

Harder, who is the chair of the city’s library board, admitted that the library doesn’t do a good job advertising all the services available to the public. She’s mused about having an event at Beaverbrook specifically for people who don’t have library cards.

It’s a great idea. Because as inviting as the new library may look, it’s the many services you can’t see that are truly impressive. And if you exhaust those possibilities, there are always the books.

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